- "This is a strange place. Dreams and reality seem to blur together."
- —Haruka Urashima
Hinata City (also referred to as a town) is a scenic town facing Sagami Bay in the Kanagawa prefecture of Japan and is most notable in the Love Hina series for being the location of the Hinata-Sou where most of the stories’ events occur.
Once a famous hot spring area, the town was popular from the late Taishō period to the beginning of the Shōwa period of Japan, however the town become left behind by the times following the Pacific War.
Notably due to this the town still features antique streetcars/trams and the rare three-wheeled car. The town is also known for its thick fog coverage.
Locations[]
Hinata Aquarium[]
The Hinata Aquarium is a multi-story aquatic centre located in the city of Hinata.
Hinata General Hospital[]
The Hinata General Hospital is the hospital that services most of the residents of Hinata.
Hinata Mountains[]
A mountainous area, the area behind Hinata is a forested region of hills and mountains.
Hinata Park[]
Found off of a side-staircase from Hinata House, the children that stayed at the apartments while it was still an Inn used to play in the sandbox of this park and was the site of the promise between Naru, Keitaro and Mutsumi.
Hinata Restaurant[]
The Hinata Restaurant was a family-owned and run restaurant located in the city of Hinata. Run by the Maehara family, following a divorce, due to receiving no alimony, Ms Maehara was forced to close the restaurant. A multi-level building, the restaurant was run on the ground floor while the family living quarters were located on the floor above.
Hinata Royal Suites[]
The Hinata Royal Suites is a new hotel opened in Hinata., featuring an indoor aquatic center that is open to the public.
Hinata-Sou[]
- Main article: Hinata-Sou
The Hinata House was originally known as Hinata Inn; a hot springs lodge famous for its open-air onsen and its “Inn of Fateful Unions”, where any couple that stayed the night always ended up together, the Inn fell in popularity after a landslide caused the annex where the lodge’s magic occurred to be condemned and locked away.
Hinata Station[]
The local station for Hinata, Hinata Station is the transit hub for those who wish to travel across the national railways to Tokyo.
Hinata University[]
Hinata University is the local university in the city of Hinata. It is here that Keitaro Urashima and Naru Narusegawa sat their Center Exam for Tokyo University, although they almost missed attending it the first time due to hitching a ride in the back of a delivery truck. In their second attempt they attended their Center Exam here with Mutsumi Otohime.
Mutsumi's Apartment Complex[]
Mutsumi’s Apartment is a lodge situated across the road from the Hinata House with rented rooms for 12,000 yen each. The building is notable for its gold fish weathervane, however it is located five feet from the train line (Mutsumi’s room has a door that opens directly onto the line).
Trivia[]
- Hinata is based on images of the Ginzan Onsen in Obanazawa, Yamagata.
- The town is supposedly run by a group of elders who only appear in the anime version of the Love Hina series.
- In a competition set up by Kentaro Sakata, Naru Narusegawa won a Hinata Pop Star contest that was judged by the town’s elders. This led to a temporary career as a Japanese pop idol.